On June 25, the Chinese team traveled to the city of Bilbao in the Spanish province of Vizcay, but the city was not friendly to them, and the whole city was overwhelmingly in favor of England and had a deep resistance to China.

The closest city to the UK in Spain is Bilbao, a city that had a lot of commercial and cultural exchanges with the UK in the 19th century, and the old town is still full of English architecture, and even today there is a 19th-century ferry service between Bilbao and Portsmouth.

"Boss, in the first game against England, do you think I can start?"

When Lin Yaodong said this in the fitness room, the two old goalkeepers of the Chinese team were not far away, and they couldn't help but sigh when they heard the words.

"I believe in you!"

Wu Jie's answer is equivalent to deciding the starting goalkeeper of this World Cup, although the coaching staff still thinks that Lu Jianren and Li Fusheng are more secure, but Wu Jie knows that Lin Yaodong is really safe.

"We played against the British team in the first game, and the Europeans said that they were the representatives of the long pass and the hanging, but I don't know how good it can be?"

Although Zhao Dayu has played half a season in Ligue 1, Lyon has not qualified for European competitions, and he has not played against teams outside Ligue 1.

"West Bromwich Albion of the English League One came to China in '78, and the Beijing team, the Shanghai team, and the Guangdong team all played against them, and they all lost badly!"

Koo Guangming played against the British team, and he was already a member of the first team of the Guangdong team at the time, and he also participated in that game.

"I think just ask the boss and Haonan, they've all eliminated English teams."

Shen Xiangfu is 25 years old, and he is embarrassed to call Wu Jie the boss.

"The British are fast, good at physical confrontation, but the technique at the foot is not delicate enough, they like to go straight when attacking, everyone has to be smart when defending, it is best to lure them into our ambush circle, use the numerical advantage to complete the defense, don't fight hard!"

Chen Haonan has a lot to say about this, and his team-mate Cunningham at Real Madrid is a member of the England national team.

'Our defensive secret is to keep the middle, it's hard to block their wide breakaways head-on, but just keep the middle airtight and guard their crosses and let them sprint down the wings.

Of course, Wu Jie knew that the impact of the English team was very strong, and hard defense would definitely not work, so he set up an iron bucket formation in the middle and waited for the English to rush in to send it.

He is very confident in his own defense, not only because he has been adjusting the defense of the Chinese team in the past two years, but also because of Lin Yaodong in front of the goal.

Lin Yaodong's current level has not yet entered its peak, but it is enough to defend England's shots from both flanks, and he also has good air defense, so he has no problem dealing with long-range shots, as long as the British do not easily break through to the penalty area to shoot, it will not be too much of a threat.

'You can't be careless, but don't be complacent, the English are good on the flanks and have a good frontal impact. But our two wings are no worse than them. In the game on the 30th, the attack in the middle will be handed over to me and Haonan to deal with, the two wings must be ready to respond to the assault at any time, it is best to cut inside, and we can't just cross the bottom, let's also let the British see that China's wings are flying together. ”

Wu Jie didn't forget to cheer up his two wings, although he wasn't sure if Gu Guangming and Shen Xiangfu could make a difference on the wings?

On June 27, the Chinese team warmed up for the game at the San Mamés Stadium, the home of Athletic Bilbao, where they played England three days later.

Gu Guangming has played here, this is a dedicated football stadium that can accommodate up to 40,000 people, surrounded by steep and cascading stands, and the fan seats are very close to the playing field, which makes the San Mames stadium has always been the famous hellish home stadium of La Liga.

"This stadium has a slightly smaller capacity, and it is already one of the top eight stadiums in La Liga."

Gu Guangming doesn't think this stadium is bad, even if it is a venue like the Workers' Stadium that can accommodate 70,000 or 80,000 people in China, it is far inferior in terms of the advanced degree of internal facilities, and it is not a special football field, and the atmosphere that can be created in the game cannot be compared.

"The relationship between this city and the UK is extraordinary, it is said that more than 100,000 British tourists have come here in the past few days, but all the tickets allocated by our country have not been sold out within the time limit, and it is likely to become the home of the British at that time, so I hope everyone is mentally prepared."

Wu Jie looked at the stadium and shook his head, of course he knew that it was unlikely that Chinese people in this era would go abroad to watch the game, so the tickets were basically bought by the fans of the other three countries.

At the mention of this incident, everyone could only sigh helplessly.

In this era, World Cup ticket sales are divided into two phases, the first stage is to give half of the tickets to the fans of the participating countries to buy, and the participating parties can buy 25% of the tickets.

However, sometimes, because the economic conditions of the participating countries are relatively poor, or the population is relatively small, then the tickets that cannot be sold will be included in the second phase of free sales.

This was the case in China, where in the first phase they also received a 25% right to buy the tickets, and the sales area was designated in China.

But in this era, starting at $20, the middle grandstand is $40, the front stand is $100, and the best position is $150 for the group stage tickets, even the British feel very painful, and the Chinese simply can't afford it.

In the last half month, only 4,000 tickets were sold, most of which were bought by Chinese fans in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, and the remaining 6,000 were put into the second phase of sales.

Therefore, it is foreseeable that they will face more than 30,000 English fans in their first game, and the rest of the Spanish fans will definitely support the England team, so they are basically playing away from home.

The morale of the Chinese players, including the members of the coaching staff, was a little low when they heard Wu Jie say this, and of course no one wants to play away from home on this kind of world stage.

But the reality is so helpless, the country is still very poor at the moment, even if hundreds of people pooled money to buy tickets, but they don't have the money to go to Europe to support them.

Of course, Wu Jie knew that saying this would make everyone feel very uncomfortable, but if they weren't prepared now, it would be more than just a low mood on the day of the game.

"Brothers, the difficulties of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea are countless times greater than ours, but our fathers still drove the Americans back to the 38th parallel, how can our generation be knocked down by this difficulty?" Wu Jie knew that there were some things that had to be said, but after he finished speaking, he also had to mobilize his morale, so he clapped his hands vigorously and called everyone over to start speaking.

"In this World Cup, we will definitely face a lot of difficulties. But having difficulties is a bad thing and a good thing, because difficulties will force people to find a way, and a difficult environment can train talents. Moreover, the greater the difficulties, the greater the achievements, and only by winning such a competition can we become more meaningful and tell the world: as long as we Chinese come, we must rush to the top. ”

Wu Jie is not talking nonsense, forty years later, most of the global ranking videos on YouTube, in addition to the negative list of suicide rate, homicide rate, and crime rate, as long as China is on the list, it will definitely be slaughtered.

Of course, football is a rare exception, but he has to let football rush first in this plane.

"Well said, no matter how strong the British are, our bright sword spirit cannot be lost, and three days later will be the moment for us to show our sword to the British!"

Chen Haonan also said loudly, this is singing a duet with Wu Jie.

"Boss, I've heard for a long time that our team has a bright sword spirit, but what exactly is a bright sword spirit?"

Lin Yaodong was also cooperating with the two of them at this time, and he unconsciously touched his left arm as he spoke.

I don't know if it's his delusion, but since he got this buff, he feels it every time he saves with his left hand.

"That's a good question, Yaodong hasn't been in our team for a long time, everyone told him together, what is the spirit of Chinese football?"

Wu Jie asked his teammates loudly.

"When the brave meet on a narrow road, the brave wins, and the enemy will show his sword, and the sword is invincible."

The Chinese players have long been familiar with this sentence, and shouted loudly when they heard it.

Don't really say it, these words can really lift the morale of the army.

After shouting this sentence, the momentum of the Chinese team immediately became magnificent, and even gave birth to a kind of pride that ran through Changhong.

At this moment, the CCTV film crew was filming on the side, and the exchange of the Chinese team was naturally recorded.

Wu Jie can imagine that after this video is edited, it will soon be transmitted back to China, and it will definitely be broadcast on the news network before the game.

At that time, not only his aura will shine more brightly, but the bright sword spirit of Chinese football will also be inherited to other sports fields.

Of course, China at this stage is not suitable for bright swords.

The next 30 years will be a period of patience for China, and this period must also be patient.

But this big guy knows it in their hearts, and they won't make any moths because of his words.

The so-called bright sword spirit will only be suitable for a small number of fields such as sports in the next few decades.

After the Chinese team completes stepping on the field, they can also go to the designated training ground for training tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

This training ground is actually the training ground of Athletic Bilbao's youth team, while England use the training ground of the first team, and the two sides do not meet before the game.

The Chinese team is naturally not very satisfied, but the Europeans are definitely looking towards the Europeans, not to mention Bilbao, which has always had close relations with the British.

If it's just this kind of differential treatment, I'm afraid that the referee on the day of the game will also be towards England, then it will not be good.

But it's useless to think so much, they will definitely not be in trouble in this World Cup, and now they can only cover up with water, and the soldiers will stop it.

Three days passed quickly, and the Chinese team watched a match between France and Czechoslovakia in the same group the day before the game.

The match was played in Valladolid, and the final result surprised the Chinese team, because the French team, which was obviously much stronger on paper, was forced to draw.

Czechoslovakia defended solidly and made the French team thunder and rain throughout the game, and only scored one goal in the end.

The Frenchman's world-class midfielder, this game doesn't seem to be that great.

Czechoslovakia's defence was solid, with a second-half penalty scored by Antoni Panenca, who invented the "spoon penalty", to draw the strong French side on paper.

'France are clearly not in the groove and Czechoslovakia are tougher than expected.'

Wu Jie could see that the Frenchman was clearly not in the game at both ends of the pitch, but it was Czechoslovakia, the second highest average age among the 24 teams, who showed the level of competition that a European champion should have.

This Czechoslovakian team has a very tacit backline, and the coordination of the central midfield is also excellent, if it were not for the serious decline in athleticism, this game should have been lost by the French team.

'The result is in our favour, France and Czechoslovakia have a point each, so if we draw with England, the whole group will be much easier.'

Su Yongshun didn't feel that there was anything wrong with his words, but it immediately attracted Wu Jie's dissatisfaction, or his dissatisfaction with the head coach has become more and more serious recently, and this sentence has given him a reason to use the topic to play......